Ars Longa Vita Brevis

Planning a painting is a little like military planning -- you go through a process to prepare for the mission but the plan often does not survive first contact with the enemy.  

Even so, I like to have some mental moorings when I approach a painting project. I ask myself what I am trying to convey. What is it about this scene that provoked the impulse to paint it? What composition will best convey that?  Where do the light, medium and dark values go? What materials -- paper, brushes, media -- will work best? 

Twice this month I did all that and started out in one direction only to end up in another. This blog is about how that happened.

Afghanistaning in Yarmouth -- First Falls, Royal River

The first case has to do with the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 16.

I had been planning to do a watercolor of an old grist mill on the Royal River in Yarmouth, Maine. I planned a fairly detailed pencil and/or pen and ink drawing of the mill. The river, swollen by rain, would be rushing over the falls at its feet but the mill would be the center of attention.

On August 16, however, the fall of Kabul was on my mind. I had served a decade earlier as the Acting U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia. I had been assistant chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Watching the images on television, it's fair to say my mind was in as much turmoil as the river I wanted to paint. This affected the development of the painting. As I moved from composition and value sketches toward starting the painting, I realized I wanted the turbulent water, not the mill, to be the center of attention. So I reduced the size of the mill and put the focus on the troubled waters instead.

An Essay on Turbulence ...

I then chose materials that would help me put drama in the water. I had on hand both Fabriano Artistico and Arches 140-lb cold-pressed watercolor paper. I initially thought of an 11 x 15 painting. But when I considered further the decision to make the water the lead actor, I concluded those papers were too fine-grained. I would need a rougher grade. This would provide white space to put sparkle in colors and capture the strong movement in the river. I turned to a substrate I had never used before -- an all-cotton paper handmade in India by Shizen Design. It was labeled as a 140-lb paper, but it was very stiff and heavy. It was also square -- 12 x 12", another departure. But I could tell that the Shizen's coarse, bumpy surface would absorb a great deal of water and allow direct and aggressive use of large brushes.

As the painting took shape, the foreground rocks and water, the trees and brushline, the orange edge of the mill and yellow-green background vegetation -- all pointed to a bright blue and white patch of boiling river in the lower right third of the composition. In contrast to the hurly-burly below, the sky above was placid, the forward motion of the water echoed only in the forward roll of distant clouds. At the center, small and forlorn, stood the old mill, out of use, pressed on both sides by dark trees and brush, a relic of bygone efforts to harness the river's force.

What was to have been an 11 x 15" rendering of an old grist mill thus became instead a 12 x 12" watercolor essay on turbulence -- which is well, because it accurately reflected my frame of mind on August 16. And for that, First Falls, Royal River will always have special significance for me.

... And Another on Backbreaking Effort -- Clamdigger

The second of case of best-laid plans concerns how I came to do Clamdigger, a 13.5 x 20.5" work in pastels, the largest I have attempted in that medium.

For some time now I have wanted to draw and paint a clamdigger. The area where I live has lots of mud flats and is famous for its clams. Every summer the town stages a clam festival.

Focusing on the Figure 

The question was how best to capture this arduous work. My first thought was a wide watercolor vista of mud flats, with diggers scattered across the scene. I had had an oil painting like that, from the Department of State's Art in Embassies program, on display at my residence in Athens when I was posted as ambassador there. But while that composition would be an attractive seascape, it wouldn't really capture the backbreaking nature of the work itself, which for me was the main thing. I began to think of an individual figure, with a pail and clam hoe, bent over in the act of digging. I drew a fairly detailed pencil sketch but put it aside. I liked the idea of the bent-over figure, but the rest of the scene wasn't there yet.

The solution  -- a shift from watercolor to pastels -- came as an afterthought as I pondered what paper to use. I again started out with the notion of an 11 x 15" piece on Arches or Fabriano Artistico 140-lb cold press paper. But I had a stock of Arches cover paper that I had not yet put to use. This paper is high-quality but lightweight. It has a good tooth and is suitable for dry media, including pastels, but not for a watercolor drenching. It occurred to me that I might attempt my clamdigger in pastels on this paper. It was a major change in tactics, and it led to several other adjustments as well. As I re-thought the project, I decided that -- along with the change in paper and medium -- I would go big vs small, abstract vs detailed, and use vibrant color vs subdued tones.

Feeling the Force of Pastels

When I began the work, instead of the detailed rendering of the figure per my preparatory drawing, I deliberately obscured the digger's face and head to keep the focus on the bent back. All of the force in the composition -- thrusting dark pant leg, background tree line, slanting sky, horizontal slash of green water, foreground light and shadow -- converges on the curve of that back. The hoe and pail are suggested with very few strokes.

The process was different (and messy), but I liked it, especially the vivid color, larger scale, and force of the pastels. I also enjoyed stepping out of my box. Pastel is a world away from watercolor but I will come back to it from time to time.  I like the challenge and I need to use that Arches cover paper.

Back from the Framers

As First Falls and Clamdigger went to the framers this month, three other Maine paintings came back -- Mooselookmeguntic Lake, Sumac 2 and Sumac 3. All three can be viewed as framed on my website.

-- Mooselookmeguntic was done plein air from a cabin on the lake at Bald Mountain Camps in Oquossoc, Maine. The view is west across the lake toward the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This region has some of the best fly fishing in Maine. The painting is available through the Thos. Moser showroom and gallery in Freeport.

-- Sumac 2 and 3 are part of a series of three pieces inspired by a clump of sumac near the bridge from Cousins Island to Littlejohn Island in Yarmouth. Sumac 1 sold at the 2019 Yarmouth Art Festival soon after I painted it. I will offer Sumac 2 to the same juried festival this year. Sumac 3 will be on exhibit through the end of the year at the Moser showroom in Freeport.

Transitioning to Fall

I wish everyone a safe and healthy month as we transition into fall. The leaves are starting to turn here in Maine. One of my favorite actors in that annual extravaganza is staghorn sumac. This ubiquitous bush is among the first to turn and its pinnate leaves score bright scarlet gashes all along Maine's roadways.

Just a few more cool nights, and the show will be on!